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Potential ow around a circular cylinder

In mathematics, potential ow around a circular cylinder is a classical solution for the ow of an inviscid,
incompressible uid around a cylinder that is transverse
to the ow. Far from the cylinder, the ow is unidirectional and uniform. The ow has no vorticity and thus
Colors: pressure eld. Red is high and blue is low. Velocity
the velocity eld is irrotational and can be modeled as a
vectors.
potential ow. Unlike a real uid, this solution indicates a
net zero drag on the body, a result known as d'Alemberts
paradox.
The ow of an incompressible uid past a cylinder
is one of the rst mathematical models that a student of
uid dynamics encounters. This ow is an excellent vehicle for the study of concepts that will be encountered
numerous times in mathematical physics, such as vector
elds, coordinate transformations, and most important,
the physical interpretation of mathematical results. [1]

Mathematical solution

A cylinder (or disk) of radius R is placed in twodimensional, incompressible, inviscid ow. The goal is
and pressure p in a
to nd the steady velocity vector V
plane, subject to the condition that far from the cylinder
the velocity vector is
= Ubi + 0b
V
j,

Close-up view of one quadrant of the ow. Colors: pressure eld.


Red is high and blue is low. Velocity vectors.

where U is a constant, and at the boundary of the cylinder


inviscid, incompressible and has constant mass density
. The ow therefore remains without vorticity, or is said
= 0 everywhere. Being
where n
b is the vector normal to the cylinder surface. The to be irrotational, with V
upstream ow is uniform and has no vorticity. The ow is irrotational, there must exist a velocity potential :
n
V
b = 0,

PHYSICAL INTERPRETATION

Being invisicid and irrotational, Bernoullis equation allows the solution for pressure eld to be obtained directly
from the velocity eld:

p=

)
1 ( 2
U V 2 + p ,
2

where the constants U and p appear so that p p


far from the cylinder, where V = U . Using

V 2 = Vr2 + V2 ,
( 2
)
1 2
R
R4
p = U 2 2 cos(2) 4 + p .
2
r
r
In the gures, the colorized eld referred to as pressure
is a plot of
Pressure eld (colors), stream function (black) with contour interval 0f 0.2U r from bottom to top, velocity potential (white)
with contour interval 0.2U r from left to right.

R2
R4
p p
=
2
cos(2)

.
U 2
r2
r4

On the surface of the cylinder, or r = R , pressure varies


from a maximum of 1 (red color) at the stagnation points
at = 0 and = to a minimum of 3 (purple) on the
= .
V
sides of the cylinder, at = 21 and = 32 . Likewise,
= 0 , so must satisfy V varies from V=0 at the stagnation points to V = 2U
Being incompressible, V
on the sides, in the low pressure.
Laplaces equation:

1.1 Stream function

2 = 0.

The solution for is obtained most easily in polar coor- The ow being incompressible, a stream function can be
dinates r and , related to conventional Cartesian coor- found such that
dinates by x = r cos and y = r sin . In polar coordinates, Laplaces equation is (see Del in cylindrical and
= b
V
k.
spherical coordinates):
1
r r

(
)

1 2
r
+ 2 2 =0
r
r

The solution that satises the boundary conditions is[2]


(
)
R2
(r, ) = U r +
cos .
r

It follows from this denition, using vector identities,

= 0.
V
Therefore a contour of a constant value of will also
. For the ow past a
be a stream line, a line tangent to V
cylinder, we nd:

The velocity components in polar coordinates are ob)


(
2
tained from the components of in polar coordinates: = U r R sin .
r
(
)

R2
Vr =
= U 1 2 cos
2 Physical interpretation
r
r
and
1
V =
= U
r

(
)
R2
1 + 2 sin .
r

Laplaces equation is linear, and is one of the most elementary partial dierential equations. This simple equa and p because
tion yields the entire solution for both V
of the constraint of irrotationality and incompressibility.

3
and p, the consisHaving obtained the solution for V
tency of the pressure gradient with the accelerations can
be noted.
The dynamic pressure at the upstream stagnation point
has value of U 2 /2, a value needed to decelerate the free
stream ow of speed U. This same value appears at the
downstream stagnation point, this high pressure is again
need to decelerate the ow to zero speed. This symmetry
arises only because the ow is completely frictionless.
The low pressure on sides on the cylinder is needed to
provide the centripetal acceleration of the ow:

V 2
p
=
,
r
L
where L is the radius of curvature of the ow. But
L R, and V U. The integral of the equation for centripetal acceleration, which will over a distance r R
will thus yield

p p U 2 .
The exact solution has, for the lowest pressure,

3
p p = U 2 .
2
The low pressure, which must be present to provide the
centripetal acceleration, will also increase the ow speed
as the uid travels from higher to lower values of pressure.
Thus we nd the maximum speed in the ow, V = 2U,
in the low pressure on the sides of the cylinder.
A value of V > U is consistent with conservation of the
volume of uid. With the cylinder blocking some of the
ow, V must be greater than U somewhere in the plane
through the center of the cylinder and transverse to the
ow.

Comparison with ow of a real


uid past a cylinder

This symmetry of this ideal solution has the peculiar


property of having zero net drag on the cylinder, a property known as d'Alemberts paradox. Unlike an ideal
inviscid uid, a viscous ow past a cylinder, no matter
how small the viscosity, will acquire vorticity in a thin
boundary layer adjacent to the cylinder. Boundary layer
separation can occur, and a trailing wake will occur behind the cylinder. The pressure will be lower on the wake
side of the cylinder, than on the upstream side, resulting
in a drag force in the downstream direction.

4 References
[1] http://library.wolfram.com/infocenter/Articles/2731/
[2] William S. Janna, Introduction to Fluid Mechanics, PWS
Publishing Company, Boston (1993)

5 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

5.1

Text

Potential ow around a circular cylinder Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potential_flow_around_a_circular_cylinder?oldid=


705745913 Contributors: Thierry Dugnolle~enwiki, Knotnic, Mets501, Incredio, Cynox, Crowsnest, Bhowell2 and Anonymous: 1

5.2

Images

File:CylinderStreamfunctionPotential.png
Source:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/
CylinderStreamfunctionPotential.png License: CC BY-SA 3.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: Incredio
File:CylinderVelocityPressure.png Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/CylinderVelocityPressure.png License: CC BY-SA 3.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: Incredio
File:CylinderVelocityPressureQuadrant.png
Source:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/db/
CylinderVelocityPressureQuadrant.png License: CC BY-SA 3.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: Incredio
File:Inviscid_flow_around_a_cylinder.gif Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/Inviscid_flow_around_a_
cylinder.gif License: CC0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: Thierry Dugnolle

5.3

Content license

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0

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